Wednesday, March 3, 2010

1. What are the different types of materials in the market? Classify the materials into wood, metal, plastics and others.The materials are:-Compressed earth block.-Mud brick.-Composites like glass-reinforced plastic or fibre-reinforced polymers.-Gypsum plaster for lining walls.-Ceramics.-Terrazzo.-Adobe (made from sand, clay, horse manure and water).-Terracotta (clay-based unglazed ceramic).-Glass bricks and concrete blocks-Timber or lumber, that is, logs that have just been cut.-Composite wood (strips or strands of wood bound together with adhesives).-Plywood.-Nylon and synthetic rubber.-PVC (polyvinyl chloride)-Styrene foam, or better known as styrofoam.-Base metals are metals that corrodes easily like iron, nickel, lead.-Noble metals are resistant to corrosion, like platinum, gold and silver.-Precious metals are rare metals that have high economical value, i.e gold and silver.-However, these are used for jewellery and coinage. Other precious metals include dangerous metals like uranium and plutonium.

2. What are the properties of the different materials?

3. How do the different materials come about? What are their compositions?

4. Give examples of the use of each material.

5. What is sustainability?

6. What does it mean when we say that a product is sustainable? Give an example of a sustainable product and explain why the product is sustainably.Sustainability is the capacity to endure. Dictionaries provide more than ten meanings for sustain, the main ones being to “maintain", "support", or "endure”. It means the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level.

Sustainability is defined as "forms of progress that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs."

The term 'sustainable product' can be subjective and include a wide variety of economic, social and environmental considerations. One broad definition of a 'sustainable product' is an item or service that minimises its impact on the environment at each phase of its life cycle.An example of a sustainable product may share some similar characteristics with Singapore's well-known NEWater Plant, which tackles issues like insufficient fresh water in the mainland and at the same time, become less dependant on other neighbouring countries like Malaysia for the natural resource.7. What does it mean by a sustainable environment? Give an example of a sustainable environment.A sustainable environment is a place where ecological balance is conserved by avoiding the depletion of natural resources. In ecology, the word 'sustainability' describes how biological systems remain diverse(showing a great deal of variety) and productive over time.

Examples of a sustainable environment are long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests. They are also known as sustainable biological systems. They are capable of sustaining lives, ranging from towering rain trees to conifer trees and Giant Anteaters to ferocious predators like wolves.